Día de Los Muertos

“And he spake unto Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, But if thou wilt give it, I pray thee, hear me: I will give thee money for the field; take it of me, and I will bury my dead there.”.20

¨We prayed for the dead and peace in the city¨ - Ahmed Ali


Many of the girls went home on Monday to be with their families on this special day of remembrance. Monday night, Angela and I did the normal evening routine of distributing colina (toothpaste) to the little ones and making sure they brush their teeth properly, when the girls were not in their PJ´s yet. They said they were going to a party... we were confused, but we ended up going to a neighbor´s house who had lost two members of their family to pray over the alter.

The tradition here is on Dia de los Muertos, if you have lost someone in your family within the past year, you make a grand alter in your house (really just a table with white tablecloth) and maybe a pic of the person along with their favorite foods all around the table and sometimes flowers too. People come and pray one decade of a rosary and a special prayer so they rest in peace. It was really beautiful. The family who lives there passes out drinks and a special pastry to each person who comes to visit. During this week, they had so many different types of cookies in the street and special Pan de los Muertos
 
Pan de los muertos is a special bread that is shaped into a body with arms crossed like they are laying in a tomb, this is most popular form. Others are in shapes of ladders to heaven, moons, crosses, llamas, and elephants. I was really moved one day in the city and bought a llama and elephant in memory of Tony Mario.
I even wore my elephant shirt on Tuesday just for him :)

Tuesday morning, Angela said a lovely prayer over the bread for all of our deceased, then we got ready for Mass. They read names of many of the church community who have gone before us and near the end of Mass, I just lost it. I had to leave the chapel. I don´t know what it was about this day, but I felt closest to him as I have ever felt any other year and it has been over 14 years and when I was praying after communion, I felt that he was really there beside me hearing my every word.

After Mass, we went to the girls´tutor´s house to pray over her daughter who she lost a couple years ago (the alter was not as big), then we walked to a cemetary with the girls. It was a really nice one, not the traditional hispanic style, for those with a little more money. (Apparently a Polish ex-priest is buried there, he ran off with a Bolivian girl who ended up finding another guy later on and he committed suicide). One of our neighbors is buried there, so we prayed over her grave and then had some time to relax on the grass. Mass was also going on in one part of the cemetary. . Well, after we came back it was time for a delicious chicken lunch that the girls prepared and then a day to watch t.v. and relax. Asha, Angela, and I wanted to check out what a REALY bolivian cemetary was like on this day.

We took a truffi, like a little minivan, into Sacaba with one of the older girls, Anna. One older guy got on at one stop and had to squat right in front of me, so if the truffi made any quick movements, he would´ve been in my lap haha. . . Well, we had to walk a little to the cemetary bc the street was CROWDED! It was like a small fair, there were games, a ferris wheel, foosball in the street, a cholita woman on a high swing that a lot of people were watching, and a couple other fun booth games, food vendors, garapiña. This is the way to celebrate life for sure!  The cemetary was huge! there were square plots built on top of each other, some were for one family (if they had the money). The rest were buried in the back in the ground, with a tiny cross or marking. People made alters over graves of their dead, prayed, and placed flowers. We put a few flowers on the graves that had none and observed their tradition. It was a full and colorful day.